Hi Everyone,

My cousin Heather and I made it to New Zealand.

Full trip reports will be coming later, but the hotel wants to give me the boot right now so I'm off to a cheap hotel that doesn't have a modem line.

Hardy

My first trip report wasn't much to read, but now I have some catching up to do so here it goes :-).... And, I'll start from the beginning and try to be brief.

Day #0-1:

Uncle Fred, aunt Peg, and cousin Heather pick me up at the house. I'm rushing to ship MPG 2.0 beta 1 before I leave. I hold everyone up for about a half hour, but I get it on my website and we are off to Dorval Airport in Montreal. We wanted to get there two hours early because we were flying international. About three quarters of the way there, Heather figures out that we aren't flying international for the first part of the flight so we didn't have to leave so early. It turns out we needed the extra time to stand at the ticket counter while three Air Canada employees tried to figure out how to check us through to Christchurch, New Zealand. We also learned that we would have to switch planes in Honolulu. It wasn't on our tickets or itinery, but according to the counter workers everyone knows you have to stop there to switch planes. Heather is convinced that our bags are not going to survive the flight, switching planes, and switching airlines. She tell's me about the place where the lost luggage goes in Alabama. Once there they auction off the luggage to the highest bidder. (This is where the term grab bag comes from.) We finally get some tickets to Honolulu and our bags are checked to Auckland. At least we are getting closer. (Ask Heather about the $10 fee to enter the airport.)

Our first 3 hour layover is in Vancouver. One ticker clerk is able to straighten out our tickets for us and we are checked in all of the way to Christchurch, but our luggage is still stopping in Auckland. We board the plane for a 6 hour flight to Honolulu. The Canadian National Rugby team is sitting all around us. They have tournament in NZ. I'm loose feeling in my legs and bottom from sitting so long. I'm looking forward to stretching in Honolulu, but they ship us directly to the next plane that they are holding for us so we only get to walk about 10 minutes. The flight to Auckland is 9.5 hours. They show us three movies and after 8 hours I'm fine, but my knees are locked in position and don't really want to straighten out. I get up anyway and walk around a bit.

In Auckland we go through customs. NZ is very strict about cleanliness. They washed and disinfected some of the rugby players cleats to get the dirt off, washed tent-stakes, and anything else that might carry foreign plants. They used to make everyone shuffle through a pool of chemicals to clean everyone's shoes, but they have relaxed a bit. But, if you are flying in through Asia you will be doused with a couple of rounds of insecticide. Oh yeah, we picked up our bags and rechecked them. It seems everyone had to.

Three hours later our flight to Christchurch took off, and 90 minutes later we were in Christchurch. It was sunny and 75 degrees. Our bags were the first to get off the plane. Heather was very, very happy.

Our hotel was across the street. Heather asked for a double room, but we got a suite (two/double rooms) with a king bed. That night Heather ended up sleeping on the couch, but I offered to sleep on it. First, we took the shuttle to the city center. We strolled through the Botanical Gardens. (It's not the same without Dave Mitchell to explain all of the plants like he did in Amsterdam when we were there.) We ate dinner at Vivaduct. We had a pumpkin, something (sweet potatoe like), and something soup that was very good.

Day #2:

Heather catches her plane to Dunedin where she will be spending four weeks working in a hospital doing her medical rotation. BTW, Dunedin is three syllables (dun-e-din), but I keep forgetting if the first syllable is pronounced like "dune" or "dun". I'll be pronouncing it like a native soon enough.

After Heather leaves I go to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast. I had french toast with a cinnamoned banana on top, which was quite good. They have brown, white, and mixed bread in NZ. I ordered the brown not really sure what would arrive - rye, wheat, pumpernickel,...I think it was wheat. I rush back upstairs to get as much work as I can get done before I have to checkout. I upload a new version of MPG and checkout by 11:00. I'm in time to catch the bus on the corner to the city center.

I arrive in my new plush accommodations at the Hereford Hotel on Hereford Street. It is $30 (NZ) a night. The exchange rate is 0.46 US dollars to one NZ dollar so I'm paying about $14 US a night for my room. :-). It has 10 foot ceilings, a chandelier, a walk in closet, a makeup table, an original oil painting of a New Zealand peak by J. Boulton, and the doors use the old fashion skeleton keys. Once you get beyond the extravagance you end up with an 8x10 room with a twin bed, no phone, and a shared shower & toilet down the hall, but for $14 I'm not complaining. The hotel owners are Asian and very nice. Both times I checked in I didn't have enough money to pay for the full two nights so they let me pay after I tapped the bank machine. I almost forgot to mention the view-- I look out toward the city center, directly at a 10 story POLICE building with POLICE in large 10 foot lettering.

I set out to explore Christchurch. I found a street that was very Church Street like, but a few blocks bigger. I toured through the Christchurch Museum which was very good. [History lesson: Moa's are large flightless extinct birds sort of like an emu or ostrich, but bigger. They died out about 800 years ago.] I bought some camping supplies. The saleman was very helpful and told me to buy less expensive stuff in NZ because I could get all of the camping gear for half the price in the US even with the good NZ-US exchange rate. I had dinner and then back to the hotel.

Day #3:

I wake up at 4:30 and work on MPG for several hours. It turns out I created a huge bug that was destroying data and I don't have a way to fix it. So, I get rid of the bug, but the some users will lose their data in MPG. I go out to eat breakfast. After breakfast, I walk several blocks to a youth hostel to book a room for my return from my tramp ('hike' is what we call it). On the way back to my hotel I find an internet cafe that will let me use their phone line for only five cents a minute. I return later in the day to send email and upload the new version of MPG. I make a reservation on Coach To Coast for my tramp the next day. That night I pack my bag several time and try to figure out what to leave behind because it weighs a ton. I sleep.

Day #4

Up at 5:30 a.m. Repack my backpack to remove any lint that could be weighing me down. I check my computer and extra stuff at the front desk. I realize I don't have a mug for tea so I walk to the Starbucks I saw the day before thinking they must be open by 7:00. Wrong, they don't open until 7:30 so I wait about 15 minutes. I go in an choose the stainless steel mug instead of the ceramic. I really wanted a plastic one. The cashier rings up the mug -- $40!! ouch. Even with the exchange, it is a $18 mug. O well, it must be a good mug and it ought to last me many years. I still haven't had breakfast and was looking for a breakfast place. No one was open yet, but the scottish breakfast restaurant was open so I passed under the golden arches and ordered an egg mcmuffin and oj. I also asked for some butter (to use on my tramp latter) and pocketed some sugar, salt, and pepper packets. I ate while walking to Cathedral Square, where the bus was waiting.

The bus didn't have any leg room so I grabbed the seat straight back that you can see when you walk straight down the isle. It allowed me to stretch out during the 2.5 hour drive.

The buses are used to trampers in NZ so I asked to be dropped off at Klondyke Corners - the start of the track. One other fellow got off at the same place. Calvin was Scottish, about forty. He was working abroad as a nurse and his wife was a doctor. They both tramped regularly all over the world. I started up the track and Calvin changed and caught up. We walked up a river basin for 2 hours, crossing the river a couple times. The river basin was about 200 meters wide of river rocks up to about a meter in diameter. The river was low today and the widest point it was only 10 meters across. The river only came up to our knees, but we didn't take off our boots so they got soaked. The water was mountain runoff so it was about 45 degrees. Your feet warm right back up when you're tramping.

At noon we arrived at the first hut and took an hour break for tea and biscuits. The next part of the track was through the woods then back out on the river basin. One of the dangers of tramping in NZ is the rivers. When it rains the rivers can rise a meter in an hour. So, instead of water to your knees it is up to your chest and over 100 meters wide. There cautionary notes everywhere and the best thing to do when the river is high is to wait a day. If you are in the backcountry in a hut then wait a day and the river while drop almost as fast as it rose. We arrived at our destination Carrington Hut about an hour ahead of schedule. It only took us 4 hours of tramping to get there. The tramping book said it would take 5 hours. Carrington Hut is huge by hut standards; it sleeps 36 people.

We ate, made tea, and then others started to show up. Three Checz, a girl from New York, a guy from the UK, and a couple from Holland. The checz left at 6:30 to tramp back to the road-- there were going to be tramping in the dark. The rest of us sat around and talked. They mostly swapped tramping stories because they had all be doing it full time for a while it seems. The dutch couple were retired, mid-fifties, organic food store owners, who sold their house to tramp and travel around the world. The New Yorker was in her early-mid twenties travelling for a year staying on work farms and various things. The Brit, Andy, was travelling with her and he was in his early to mid twenties also. Andy, had tramped in South Africa and Nepal amoung other places. All very interesting. We turned in for bed. We hung the food so the mice couldn't get in it, but around 4 in the morning I was waken by a little mouser. I left a bag of food on the bunk below me and it had eaten a hole through the bag and was feasting on dried peas and other delicatibles. I had my flashlight so I didn't do anything at first, but I waited until I heard it come back and then shone the spotlight on it. It was standing there looking up at me and then scampered of the side of the bed. I got up and put up the food and slept the rest of the nice undisturbed. (And quite pleasantly I might add because the mattress pads at the hut were very comfortable.)

Day #5

I left Carrington Hut at 9:30. I used a cable car to cross the river. You stand in it and turn a wheel to slowly get across. You are about 30 feet up. It goes a lot faster if you have someone cranking at one of the ends because the wheels are bigger so the mechanical advantage is greater. The benefit of the cable car is my boots stayed dried! On the other side I missed the markers for the track so I went down instead of up. I eventually got back on course. After about 90 minutes I came to a point where I had to cross a small, fast, and deep stream. I looked up and down the river for a better place to cross, but this was were the rock cairns were so I eventually got up the nerve to cross. I took off my boots and put on my Tevas. I stepped in and it wasn't soo bad. It was only slightly deeper than my knee and the current wasn't so strong that it could sweep my feet out if I had my full weight on them. So I made the six foot crossing and only wasted 45 minutes doing so. It's tough call because when I'm by myself, I don't want to screw up and plunge into the river, knock my head, twist an ankle so I'm extra cautious which costs me a lot of time. I'm head up to the watigai falls and stop for lunch. I'm finishing the last of my tea and a Kiwi is coming off the pass so I wait for him. We talk briefly and he suggest that I pick up the pace some. It took him four hours to get here and so far I'd been traveling 3 hours.

I head off, but I'm very lethargic due to a full stomach. I stop and energize with a bit of chocolate which seems to help some and then I start plodding up to the top of Harman Pass. As I near the top it is getting foggier and is flurrying a little bit. I reach the top marker, but I don't see any of the orange markers the Kiwi said were here. I see a well traveled path leading straight and bending left so I take that. After about 5 minutes I decide that it is the wrong way so I head back to the top and pull at the map, the tramping book, my compass, and my magic eight ball to try to find the correct way to go. I decide to bear right a bit and walk for a while to see if I see anything. After 50 meters I see the first orange marker and I connect up with the trail down. I felt like I was in Braveheart running over the Scottish Highlands. I wasn't running though. A bit later I had to make my way down through the bush without any trail help me. I feel twice scrapping my leg so it bled. I also think I twisted my right knee at some point along here. About 2-3 hours later I found the trail head leading to Julia hut. I was a bit upset because there were markers that didn't lead any place and I had lost the plastic top of my $40 starbucks cup. The trail to Julia Hut was up and down, slippery, and slow going because of my knee, but I rolled into Julia Hut at 6:30.

Greg Buckman, an Aussie, was at the hut. He has his tent setup outside and asked if it would be ok if he stayed in the hut. I didn't mind. He told me hot to get to the Julia Hot Springs. It is a small pool about a meter by a meter and a half and about a half meter deep so you need a bucket to scoopy out the gravel. I didn't find it that night. I didn't walk down far enough. Too bad, because my muscles would have loved it. I went back to the hut. Greg is the Treasurer for the Australian Green Party. So, we had a lot to talk about politically. He didn't know anything about Libertarianism so I filled him in. About an hour before dark he asked if I snored. I think, if I said yes he would have been back out in his tent. We talked a while longer about politics.

Day #6

In the morning Greg was still peppering me with questions. We had breakfast and I headed off. I walked down by the river again and found the hot springs this time. They were warm -- probably 85-90 degrees. I started walking a little bit further down the river and figured out the trail started from the hut paralleling the river, but not down on the river. So, I bushwacked through the bush to find the trail. I was only about 50 meters away so I wasn't in bad shape. The trail was in great shape. It was lie walking in my backyard when I have the trails cuts. I could take long strides and there was short grass with a relatively smooth flat track. I had to cross a swing bring or perhaps a three cable bridge. I don't remember which one came first. You grab onto the cables and walk across either on a single wire or on a foot wide bridge with metal braces every 2 feet and chain link fence between the braces. Both were fun, both I was glad it wasn't windy, and both I was glad that I'm not afraid of heights. Most of the tramp, actually, if you were afraid of heights you would have hated, hated, hated it. I made good time to Mid-Tapiro Hut. I was freshly painted and very neat. I didn't stay long and headed off to reach Seven Mile Hut.

The trail started out in the woods and then down to the river. I put together my fishing pole and played with the sandflies a little while. Sandflies are equivalent to our blackflies. I think, blackflies are worse. I fish didn't bit and luckily the sandflies didn't bit me either. I'm using RID and liquid 30FPS sunscreen/bug repellant. I carry the fishing pole for the next couple miles through pasture land. I walked in the pasture some avoiding the cow and sheep droppings. It was a casual walk and I felt like I was back home fishing at gramma Machia's in Sheldon. I didn't find any good fishing holes though. The large orange marker said I had to go through the forest so up I climbed 20 meters and back down. When I came back down I was at a large deep clear pool. I would have dove in, but the New Zealand summer water is still a crisp 45-50 degrees so I practiced my casting for about 20 minutes. Once I was sure I had the backhand, underhand, sidearm, swing and behind-the-back casts all down pat then I tried them all left handed. I headed down the river another half mile and the large orange marker said I had to go through the forest so up I climbed 20, 40, 60, 100, 150 meters straight up (it was probably 55 degrees.). At about 100 meters I decided to put away the fishing pole and read my tramping book again. Yep, it said if I crossed the river instead of climbing up then I wouldn't have to climb up mount olympus. Oh well, I was most of the way and wasn't going back down now, at least not the way I came up. It leveled out around 150-200 meters for about 20 meters and then headed back down.

On the other side of mt olympus was Scott's Cableway. This was different than the cableway from the day before because instead of a wheel in the car you held the car with one hand, loaded your gear in, then jumped in and zinged out to the midpoint of the cable. Instead of a nice little wheel to crank you put this level thingy on the cable and pulled yourself across. It wasn't bad until the last 5 meters when you had to pull the weight of the car, your gear, and yourself up to the landing. I unloaded my gear and let the cablecar zing back to the middle of the river.

I was walking down the valley again. I saw an occasionally horse track now and again. I took a break on an hillside over looking the river with wildflowers all around and read some of my book. I also took a picture of me relaxing there.

The plants were getting more wicked. They all grow wicked spikes to pierce your skin and bags. I was following the oranger markers and another trampers tracks, but then I lost the tracks and the markers. I decided to head toward the river. I got down and took a break for some tea. Then I tried to make my way along the river, but it prove futile becauase the wicked bushes were growing right along the edge of the river and it was too deep to ford. By this point the last orange marker was 20 minutes backwards so I found two large sticks to use as a shields against the bushes. I only had to break through about 20 meters and I was free. I was able to follow the river again.

Seven Mile River joined with the main river and I had to cross it to get to the hut. I started to make a stone bridge by throwing stones into the river, but decided switching into my Tevas and walking across would be faster. I arrived at Seven Mile Hut (SMH) at 5:30. The other huts had rain catches or rivers close by, but the closest water supply to SMH was 200m away so I grabbed a large kettle and walked down to the river to fill it. I carried it on my head like an indian on the way back. I had the hut to myself tonight so I made dinner and read my book.

Day #7

Another long day. I left at 9:30. Hiked up through the forest for 4 hours. One of NZ's flightless birds walked within 4 meters of me. There was no water on this part of the tramp and I neglected to fill my bottle before heading off. So, I was dying of thirst. It was a steep climb about 800m in 2 hours, but it took me 4 hours because of my knee. There were some very large and impressive rock slides. A single step to the left would have sent you tumbling for hundreds of meters. Eventually, I cleared the forest and was favoured with 360 degree views of the surrounding valleys and mountains. Also, there was a bucket of water!!!. BTW, I have a water bottle that has a iodine-filter built in that destroys all of the little nasties so I didn't have to boil the water for three minutes.

I picked my way through the bush to the bush line. Then it was smooth tramping the rest of the way. It was a bit tiring, the wind was cold in spots, and a few times the markers were knocked down so I didn't know exactly which way to go, but all and all I arrived at Carroll Hut at 4:15.

A mid-thirties German couple (from Coburg) just arrived at the hut from below. They are both doctors and had been to NZ several times. They headed to the top to look at the view.

I relaxed. We ate. They shared their wine. It was a Merlot by Montana, a NZ company. The only problem was the wine used Australian and Chilean grapes and the German guy was flabbergasted by that. After dinner they played a two person card game that was in German. I had finished my other book earlier that evening so I started on The Illiad. I slept poorly because the mattress was thin. I should have piled up three of them.

Day #8

I woke in the morning and had breakfast with the Germans and they headed out. They offered me a ride back to Christchurch if I didn't find a ride before they got back to their car.

I hiked down. It only took 1.5 hours. I freshened up in the river and read my book while I waited for either the bus or the Germans. A Kiwi fellow about 55 stopped and asked where I was going and if I wanted a lift. I said sure. I'm traveling to meet different people and I already met the Germans so off I went. He had been tramping yesterday and today and I think he wanted someone to talk to for the 2.5 hour trip back to Christchurch. We stopped in Arthur's Pass so he could call his daughter so she knew he made it out safely. While he was talking on the phone I say the NY girl and the Brit guy. They both came up to me to ask how the rest of my tramp went. We talked a bit and then I went in with the Kiwi to get some food. I was in line and the Assie from Julia Hut came in and said hi because the NY&Brit told him I was inside. (weird, weird, weird.) I'm not sure if they are all getting paid to be this nice, but if that is the general spirit of trampers in NZ then I'm going to come back and do it a lot more.

The drive back was uneventful, I got to hear a lot of the little points of interest on the way back. The Kiwi's have a race each year called the Coast-To-Coast. It was held this Friday and Saturday and they raced through Arthur's Pass to Christchurch. They run, bike, run through the mountains, kayak, bike, and run some more. The Kiwi dropped me at my hotel and I checked back in and then took a shower! After the shower I unpacked my gear and packed up my computer and headed to the internet cafe to check my email. 800 messages took 27 minutes to download. I think, 400-500 of the messages were probably spam.

I went looking for a sushi bar, but it was closed so Fodor's said The Loaded Hog was good and they brew their own beer. I ordered a sandwich and drink and sat down to write postcards. My food came and I ate and watched a couple groups of people carrying on. They had a silver cup and a bronze cup. The silver cup was three times the size of the bronze. They were pouring beer into the cup and standing up on the table to drink it. I thought it might be related to the coast-to-coast, but they should have been celebrating yesterday and not today. They were still there when I was finished so I walked over and looked at the cup sitting on the table and it was for the first place finisher of the Coast-To-Coast in the two day individual competition. I'm assuming the bronze might have been third place. So, I picked the place where the party was. The is also a one day winner who finishes the race in under 12 hours, but I'm not going to knock anyone who wins the two day race either. There were about 900 entries this year.

Day #9

It is 2:45 a.m. and I'm finally finished writing my first trip report. Good night. I'm off to some winery tours in the morning!

Hardy

Day #9

My last trip report ended on Day #9 at 2:45 a.m. so I'll pick it back up from where I left off which means breakfast! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day so finding a good breakfast spot is always a bonus. Fodor's suggested "The Honey Pot". I found it, and I wasn't let down. I had a salmon, onion, and tomato omlet with large homemade toast drizzled with hollandaise sauce. For mood music they were playing reggae.

I had a lot of time to waste today so I started walking toward the hills which is where I thought the gondola was to take you to the top and then I could walk down a path to the ocean. I walked the wrong way. I was going southeast when I needed to be going north. Three hours of walking was my exercise for the day. I caught a bus back to the city.

Day #10

Rode in a bus for about 5 hours from Christchurch to Dunedin. The bus ticket only cost $15 US. The bus terminal in Dunedin is also the train station. I don't remember the architectual style of the train station, but it was a very elaborate european renaissancy style. It took me a little while to get my bearings in the new city (which is another way for me to say I walked the wrong direction again), but I found the Octagon which is the city center. The Octagon is like a traffic circle, but octagonal with one street dissecting it. The hostel I was staying at was about a 20 minute walk from the city center and was in a more industrial part of town. There were car repair shops and warehouses. (BTW, a auto body repair shop is called a panel-knocker shop.)

I checked into my room. It was a shared room with six beds in it. There was a Japanese guy in the room. He came to NZ 7 months ago to learn conversational English. He didn't know any when he got to NZ, but wasn't doing too bad. Better than my Japanese, but he didn't want to talk much so I guess he was finished practicing for today.

I wondered through the Dunedin museum and the First Settlers' museum. Most of the museums don't charge for admission, but instead ask for donations. Most people seem to put in the recommended $5 (NZ) donation. The Dunedin museum has two of four intact Moa eggs in the world.

I tried calling Heather a couple times, but she wasn't home from work yet. Dunedin is where she is based in NZ. I finally caught up with her, said hi, and decided that I would touch base with her again at some point, but essentially I'm meeting her in Christchurch to fly to Australia.

I walked back to the city center for dinner. I picked out a wine bar/restaurant. The food wasn't very good, but tried "flower pot bread". It is bread served in a ceramic flower pot. It was the best part of the meal.

Day #11

Interesting fact for the day: Dunedin is the 5th largest city in the world - area wise. From the city center it encompasses everything within a radius of 25km.

Remember the albatross in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner? The Royal Albatross Colony is on the first part of my tour today. The albatross is a huge bird with a wing span of up to 3.5 meters. It rarely flies by flapping its wings like other birds because it has perfected soaring. Beautiful in the air and oafs on land! The Royal Albatross Colony is the only albatross colony on a populated mainland and the only colony within the city limits. I didn't hear anyone arguing about it, but if Dunedin is on the "south island" of New Zealand then how can anyone claim an island is a mainland. The albatross's chicks had hatched about 3 weeks ago so I got to see a baby albatross from about 40 meters.

Our bus driver for the tour was quite a hoot. She stopped the bus to point out a huge cypress(?) tree and then jumped out of the bus to pick up a dead possum by the tail to show us. She didn't see the ferret that scampered away when she was getting out of the bus.

Next stop, yellow-eyed penguins. These are endangered with only about 5000 in the world and they are only found in New Zealand. Again, found within the city limits of Dunedin. We saw them on the beach, and we saw them up close from blinds that we reached by walking in tunnels. We saw several baby penguins, but one gave us a special treat. We watched it go for its first swim. It stood on the shore for a long time waiting for its parent who was swimming around in the middle of the pond to feed it, but it was getting anxious. It waddled in up to its ankles and after about 10 minutes it kind-of-sort-of fell in and wasn't really sure what to do so it swam towards its parent which chased it part way back into shore. We switched blinds to watch from different angle. The parent went to shore and the baby followed it really wanting to eat, but the parent made it follow it for a few minutes for a longer workout to build up its baby muscles.

We headed back to town and the bus driver made a point to mention that she had to get me to the Town Hall. I had overlapped activities for the day and the Scottish Dragoons Pipes & Drums started to play at 8:00 p.m. The albatross/penguin tour didn't get back until 9:00 p.m. This actually worked out ok for me because I only had to watch half of the pipe&drum show. They were good. There were about 12 bag pipe players, 7 drummers, a keyboardist, bass guitar and electric guitar players. They also had a female fiddle player as a bonus! One song she came out playing, but her electric fiddle wasn't on so she just played the first part of one piece without any sound. She had to go off stage, fix it, and return.

Day #12:

Busy day. Woke at 7:15. Bus to Invercargill picked me up at 7:30 at the hostel.

The bus drove through the towns of Clinton and Gore on the way to Invercargill. They opened a new road between the two towns a few years ago, and it was named the presidential highway. The bus driver joked that the towns people wanted to change the name to the Monica Lewinsky highway.

It is raining in Invercargill when I get there. I'm not staying long because I taking a plane from Invercargill to Stewart Island. You are limited to 15kg in luggage on the small plane so I walk 9 blocks to the public lockers to store my extra gear. I'm going to do a two night tramp so I don't want to carry anything extra if I can avoid it.

The plane to Stewart Island holds 10 people; five rows of two including the pilot. I sit behind the pilot and can look over his shoulder. The inside of the plane is very loud, and the lady next to me holds her hands over her ears for the full 20 minute trip. You can also take a ferry to the island which takes about an hour. The island is covered in clouds. I'm looking over the pilot's shoulder to check our altitude and speed. We descended to 700 feet, but the pilot couldn't find the runway so he ascended to 1500 feet again. I caught glimpses of the large mountain on the island, but it was still far away and I didn't think anything else tall was close by. We circled to approach from the other direction the pilot kept bending over to peek out the window to try find the run way. He finally caught sight of it and we came in for the landing. We also had 30 gallons of fuel so we could have flown around for a long time or back to the other airport. A shuttle drove out to meet the plane once we touched down and drove us into town.

It was about 3:30 when I reached the DOC (Department of Conservation) office. My tramping book said it was a 5 hour tramp to the first hut. I bought my tickets for the huts on the tramp. The lady looked at her watch and I said I have plenty of time to make it to the first hut. She agreed, but she said the low tide was at 2:30 so I would have to take the long way around instead of cutting across the beaches.

I stopped at "Ship To Shore" to buy food for my two nights and was on my way. It rained most of the walk and my jacket wasn't doing a very good job at keeping me dry. I was trying to walk at a fast pace so I could take the shorter routes across the beach before the tide came all of the way in. I was able to cut across all of the beaches. On the last beach there were 7 beached Pilot whales rotting away half covered in sand. They beached on Christmas Eve. Due to the wind direction, or rain, or just because they were covered in more sand the stink wasn't bad when I walked past. I kept close to the ocean and the wind was blowing inland. Reports from other trampers said the stink was the worst thing they had ever smelled and that was from only a couple days prior to my passing.

When I arrived at the hut in 3.5 hours. There was a lot of commotion. The local fishermen had dropped off some pauna (albalony shell fish) and an octopus. The other campers were busy preparing them for a snack. I helped out cutting up the octopus. An Israeli sauteed the pauna in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and onion. It was delicious. I went back and cooked up the octopus the same way. A little bit chewier, but still delicious.

A group of us stayed up until 11:30 talking. We didn't have any candles so we sat in the dark and talked. They all hated British comedy and don't understand why Americans like it. Finally, sane people! I hate most British comedy, too.

Day #13:

There was a rope swing that swung out over the beach. The problem is that it is hard to pump your legs and make it swing. I was hanging there thinking about jumping down when the fishermen came in from their boat and gave me a push back to the cliff.

On the track I met two girls that were on the bus with me from Dunedin from yesterday. They were walking the track in the opposite direction. We chatted for five minutes and continued on our way.

It took me 5 hours to get to the North Arm Hut. Most of the people at the hut were going to be the same people from the previous night's hut. A Belgian guy and I walked to the beach and picked mussels and clams for tonight's appetizers. We steamed them and they were good, but we needed some white wine and garlic to steam them up right.

There was a guy, Scott, from Idaho in the hut tonight, talking about gas prices in the US. He had been in NZ for 3 months, and he was saying gas was $3/gal and there were only three liters in a gallon. I told him prices were dropping when I left and I could buy gas for $1.45/gal. I also pulled out my English to metric conversion table which showed that it was closer to 4 liters per gallon. Anyway, we talked until 9:30 or so when a Canadian lady told us that our voices were carrying and everyone else was trying to sleep. We turned in. I fell asleep listening to the rain and wind storm outside.

Day #14:

I was up at 7:00 and on the track by 7:30. The sun was shining, but the track was very muddy from the rain the night before. About 80% of the walk was planked which meant I was walking on a narrow boardwalk most of the way which kept trampers from getting too muddy. The boardwalk is hard on my feet with my hiking boots and a full pack. It was like walking on pavement so I tried walking to the side of it whenever possible. I could also walk faster this way when the track was ascending or descending because I could take my standard stride instead of a shorted stride to walk up or down the steps.

It took me 4 hours to hike out. I saw Scott and Mika (german girl) at the DOC center. They have tramping poles and move fast. It only took them 3 hours to get out. I walked over to the airport/postoffice office and put my name on the list to fly standby off the island. It only costs $50(NZ) to fly standby versus $75 (NZ) to book it. There were three planes leaving at 3:30 and so far only one passenger booked on it so I had a good chance to get on as a standby.

I wanted to play a round of golf at the Stewart Island Golf Course. It is a six hole course. But, today they were having a tournament so I could play. Instead, I bought lunch and then headed into the bar to write out postcards. After half a drink three people (a Brit and two NZ'ers) came to sit with me. They were in the huts both nights also. We played pool for a while. The fishermen from the hut two nights ago came into the bar for a drink also. It is the only bar on the island. I said something about smashing the octopus with a pot to try to tenderize it, but instead the octopus tentacle became very rigid. The fisherman said it was "out of it". A local NZ expression that I didn't understand and the Kiwi at my table said it meant uncanny or weird.

Scott and Mika were on my flight back. When we arrived at the airport we only had about $1 each so we walked back to town. It was a 5km walk. I was back a day early and my motel was booked for the night so I stayed at a brand new backpackers (like a hostel for backpackers). The paint was still drying on the walls. I was in the same room as Scott and Mika. Scott and I got to talking and he asked who I voted for for president. I said Harry Browne. He had a who the hell is that expression on his face and I said he was the Libertarian candidate. Scott said there's two of us in the room then now. He was small-L-libertarian. He was in Australia and didn't vote.

Day #14:

Booked the Spitfire Shuttle to Te Anau. I had a couple hours to wait so I walked to the McDonald's and ordered a cheeseburger and milkshake so I could say that I've eaten at the southern most McD's in the world. The shuttle driver drove fast and the shuttle felt like it was out of control most of the time. I curled up and tried to sleep. Between sleep and clenching my hands due to the driving I saw about a quarter million sheep on the ride. There are all over the place.

I reached my hotel and checked my email. I've decided that anytime I stay in a room with a phone line that it becomes a business expense on this trip.

I booked a tour of the glowworm caves at 8:15. I climbed to the top deck of the boat to view the scenery around Lake Te Anau. It was lovely with mountains going straight up in the distance. The lake was the 2nd largest by surface area and the largest by volume of water. The lake was formed by glaciers, is 200m deep on average with the deepest spot being 400m.

The glowworm caves were awesome. I'd suggest it for anyone visiting Te Anau. Parts of the passage in you had to duck because it was only a meter high, they had barges to cross some dammed up portions of the caves, and we floated through the "Glowworm Grotto". It was like looking up at the sky with millions of stars alight. These were florescent green instead of white.

There is no light pollution on the lake so the boat ride back there were billions of stars to see. The Milky-Way was very milky. I recognized the Archer constellation, but that was all. I didn't look for the Southern Cross because I forgot to look for it.

Hardy

Two trip reports almost back to back. I'm heading off on my horseback trek so I wanted to send a report prior to the next stage of my journey.

Day #15:

I check into the Steamers Backpackers. I shared a room with 5 other guys. I dropped off my gear and walked 10 minutes back into town. I ate at the Moose Lodge again and order the same thing - a chicken burger. This time the drink was free because there were vouchers at Steamers for a free drink with any sandwich order.

Since I couldn't play gold on Stewart Island's 6 hole course, I was itching to play in Te Anau. I asked the information desk where the golf course was and I headed out to it. It is a long walk; almost directly across the lake from where I at. It took me about an hour to walk there. I rented clubs and joined a couple, Leslie and Shirley Gibson from the UK. My best shot of the day was a tee shot into a tree taking down branches. I couldn't find my ball so I climbed under the low limbs of the evergreen to find my ball about 7 feet up nestled in the branches. I played out. My Teva's were rubbing my right heel the wrong way and I played the last 9 holes barefoot. I shot a 122 and the others both shot under 100. The Gibson's gave me a ride back to town.

I couldn't bend my legs and they were cramping up, but I saw some flyers for massages so I called about getting a massage. Dawn only took 4 people a day, but she said she could fit me in at 8:00 p.m. Her B&B was across the street from where I was staying so I went back and showered and then went over for a massage. She learned from a Navajo or some other native American Indian. It was very painful. Dawn's parent's owned the farm where the six hole golf course now is on Stewart Island.

I went for some pizza and did some grocery shopping for lunch for the kayak trip the next day.

Day #16:

Up at 6:10 a.m. to catch the shuttle for kayaking on the Milford Sound. Three girls across the hall were also kayaking. (Kerry - CO; Julie - PA; Ulla - Ohaus, Denmark) It was a two hour ride to the launch site. Sixteen of us in all were kayaking and we separated into two groups. We were using double sea kayaks and Ulla was my partner. Ulla is a nurse who is biking around NZ for several months. It seems like a common thing for nurses to do... I met a Swiss nurse on the Albatross tour doing the same thing as Ulla and they were both doing it alone.

Julie and Kerry were on their way to the Marshall Islands from Antartica where they worked for 3 months. Kerry wants to go back and hopefully get a better job fueling planes. Her last job was washing dishes, but if you fuel planes then you have a chance to get flights inland.

The kayak trip lasted 6 hours. We paddled three hours in and three hours out. We saw seals, a 130m waterfall, Mitre Peak, and lots of other beautiful things. On the way in we rafted all of the kayaks together and put up a sail to blow us back in. I worked for about 15 minutes and then we paddled back in.

On the drive back to town we stopped a lot for pictures. I saw a few Kea parrots up close. Kea's destroy backpakers tents and boots with their sharp beaks. These Keas' were eating the hoses on a flatbed truck. We stopped as a Chasm to look at the waterfalls rush under the foot bridges. The coolest thing was to stare at the waterfall in the same spot for about two minutes and then look at the rocks to the right and all of the rocks start moving. It was very trippy. The next stop was for tea. We stopped at a river. Damien (one of the kayak guides), Julie, Kerry, and I went down to the swimming hole and jumped it. It was deep and cold, but not nearly as cold as the rivers I was fording at Arthur's Pass a couple weeks ago.

I went shopping in town and stopped at the Moose Restaurant on my way back to the backpackers. NZ was playing Pakistan in cricket. NZ won, but I still haven't figured out all (any) of the rules of the game.

Day #17 (2/21/01):

Julie and Kerry were getting their bikes ready to ride to Invercargil. I said by and sat down to wait for my bus to Queenstown. I stopped in Queenstown just long enough for lunch and then caught another bus to Cromwell which is the launch point for my horseback trek. Queenstown is where all of the adventure sports are (bungy jumping, jet boating, helicopter rides, parasailing, paragliding, white water rafting,...). I had hoped to do a fabulous four which combines bungy jumping, jet boating, helicopter, and rafting together in one package, but I don't have time. I'll have to leave that for my next trip to NZ.

I'm meeting Jude to discuss what I need to pack for tomorrow and then will grab a bite to eat before turning in.s

Hardy

I'm not sore :-)

Day #18 (2/22/01):

I checked out of the Twin Rivers Motel. I made a few long calls to check email and it appeared on the bill as $27 (NZ). Jean who is the owner thought it was too expensive so she adjusted my bill and cut the phone charges in half. I didn't have a problem paying whatever the amount was, but I was happy she gave me a break.

Day #27:

I'm back in Christchurch. Last night I checked into the youth hostel. The first order of business was doing laundry. I bought some soap and put all of my clothes into the machine. My dark clothes were a little cleaner and my white clothes became a bit dirtier. I'll be throwing out all of the shirts I've taken with me on this trip when I return.

I had a big email morning since it had been about 8 days since the last time I checked email. I waited 30 minutes for 1200 messages to download and walked back to the hostel to sort through the email and process orders for my software. I checked out of the hostel and stopped into the internet cafe one last time to send out about 100 emails including the last trip report.

I hung out in Cathedral Square. I munched on a bacon avocado burger while listening to a big band play some swing and jazz. Walking around the square I saw the Wizard performing. I had read about him, but he wasn't out the last time I was in Christchurch. I watched him for a while carry on about how women are the source of all wars in world because of their need to shop and horde things. He drew lots of laughs. I wandered by two men playing chess in the square with two foot pawns and three foot queens and kings. It was near the end of the game and one man made what I thought was a mistake and a spectator commented on it and then his opponent didn't take advantage of it. I couldn't see any reason why not.

I caught a bus to the airport and met up with Heather.

The plane from Christchurch, NZ, to Brisbane, AU, was on time, but the connection from Brisbane to Cairns (pronounced 'cans') was all screwed up. A bird was sucked into the engines and they couldn't find another plane for us so we waited a couple hours for another plane to be found.

I called the hostel I was staying at to find out about checking in late and they said they would leave a key at the 24 hour pizza place next door. The room was small and didn't have any air conditioning so it was an uncomfortable night.

Day #28:

First thing in the morning, we booked a 3 day/2 night scuba diving trip. There were two charter boats out. I flipped a coin to decide which boat to book. It was the Taka II. We also booked a sea kayaking trip for this afternoon.

The next priority of the day was to find a new place to stay. The information agent suggested the Caravella 77 which was on the same block as the YHA. We checked in. On the way to the room I passed a pool with several beautiful girls laying out sunning themselves so the new accommodations quickly gained several bonus points not to mention the room had air conditioning.

I needed to get a medical prior to going on the dive trip because I was completing a course and Australian law says everyone needs a medical. With some time to kill before the sea kayaking trip I went to the health center. I blew into a machine to measure my lungs, the doctor asked a couple questions, he checked my ears, and told me to make sure I equalize my ears during the dive (duh). So, the medical community made their little bit of money off us tourist and I was declared 'fit' to dive.

We took the ferry from Cairns to Fitzroy Island to sea kayak. The group kayaking consisted of three guides, Heather, myself, 17 high school students, their teacher and one other American (Jennifer from AZ). We had about an hour before we started kayaking so Vince the guide told us to hang out or explore and that even with all of the students we would enjoy the trip. I started exploring and ran into Jen. We walked along the nature trail and chatted. Jen was an airline hostess who was traveling with her brother for a few weeks.

We were in double sea kayaks again. Heather and I were in one. We had the only red kayak which steered from the back seat which was unlike all of the other yellow kayaks which steered from the front seat. We paddled around the island. There wasn't much to see compared to my Milford Sound sea kayak trip, but it was a nice day to paddle. We stopped for lunch at Little Fitroy Island. A large lace dragon lizard came to visit for lunch. It was about 2 feet long. Vince, four students, Jen and I hiked to the top of the island while most everyone else snorkeled. It was a fun little hike to the top and then we climbed to the top of the light house where Vince gave us a lots of very interesting facts very quickly about the islands -- he had the atlas information for the islands memorized and rattled it off very quickly. Fitroy Island was 1x2 miles, was a quarantine for the 4000 Chinese who had smallpox during one of the gold rushes in Cairns, the island only has 200 people on it now, and on and on. The lighthouse was neat because you could look through the 2 inch space between the red and green filters (I have a picture) and see where the passageway through the Great Barrier Reef was. If you were on a boat and saw a red light or a green light then you knew you were off course in a certain direction, but a white light meant you were safe. We climbed down through some caves. When I got down I went snorkeling for about 15 minutes. We loaded up and headed back to the ferry dock.

I showered and went to the bar where Jen flagged me down. Heather and Vince came to join us, too. We ate potato wedges until the ferry came. We met Jen and her brother, Eric, for dinner.

Day #29:

A lazy catch up day...I found an internet cafe and worked for a while. I also mailed home a box of books, clothes, and other stuff that I didn't need to carry around any more. I can fit everything into my backpack now. I bought some more books to read on the 3 day diving trip...I can't fit everything into my backpack anymore. I wandered through the mall at the Pier and stopped in an artist's photography studio. He had a panoramic print of Hardy's Reef (several of you will be getting postcards of it). I debated with myself for a while about buying it a print, but I couldn't visualize where in my house I would hang it so I decided against buying it. I started reading on of my books.

For dinner I tried emu patŽ, kangaroo, and crocodile. They were all pretty good.

Day #30:

I called home to find out Vermont was getting hit by a Noreaster and Grand Isle already had about 18 inches of snow. Even though I was in 85-90 degree heat in Cairns diving I was also bummed that I was going to be missing a great powder day tomorrow on the slopes.

I had to find something to do until 5:00 p.m. when the shuttle to the dive boat would pick me up at the backpackers. I decided chuck spears and toss boomerangs. I caught the city bus to the Aborigine Cultural Center. I spent three hours watching politically correct movies, shows with live aborigines, and walking through the small village where a native showed us how to make and play a diggeridoo and taught us about native plants for medicinal and food use. A few plants leaves we got to smell or taste.

The highlight was the spear chucking and boomerang tossing. I did about as well as the natives demonstrators at spear chucking. I almost hit the target which was all the natives could do, too. Throwing the boomerang took me a few tries, but I had it come all of the way back to me. I wanted to try again, but the demonstrator shooed me off. I bought a boomerang to practice with.

I missed the city bus back by about 5 minutes and the next bus would be too late to get me back for the dive pickup. I walked over to the complimentary shuttle, but after waiting for 15 minutes they told me I couldn't take it because I had a large backpack. I tried pointing out that many others were getting on with backpacks, but they said mine was just too big so I couldn't take the shuttle. I had the lady call me a taxi which cost me $20 to get back to the city. The original bus out was only $4 and the shuttle would only have been $8.

I made it back to the backpackers with 15 minutes to spare to catch the shuttle to the dive boat.

We boarded the boat and scuba gear was distributed. Since, I was the most inexperienced I just waited around to be the last person to get my stuff. I put my gear in my spot on the dive deck. The boat got on the way to "The Cod Hole". It would take us all night to travel there. John was the trip master and gave us a few briefings about the boat and dive procedure. He let us take a break after about an hour which was good because I was starting to feel seasick and needed to get up on deck. After the initial breather I was fine the rest of the trip.

The details of the scuba trip will be in the next report...I'm in Airlie Beach Australia now and there is not a local access number for my ISP here. To get the cheapest rate I must call the US which is only $0.26/min versus calling another Australian city which would be $0.34/min.

Hardy

Day #31:

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. on the dive boat and couldn't fall back to sleep because something was rattling in the corner. I found a bench to lie on in the dinning area and I read until the cook woke up. The cook got things ready for breakfast and then went around banging on all of the cabin doors to wake everyone up. They "ran a tight ship". If you didn't eat during the window of time to eat then you didn't eat.

John was in charge of the trip. He got all of the divers in the water and I waited. Then he took me in for my first real dive! It took me a long time to descend because I wasn't accustom to equalizing the pressure in my ears. We found a spot to do some of the practice exercises like letting your mask fill with water and clearing it. I was comfortable doing these things from the pool training in Vermont so John lead and we went exploring the Cod Hole Reef.

Since we entered the water after everyone else one potato cod fish thought we were going to feed it. The potato cods are big; about 1m long and half meter tall. The potato cod kept following us. I pet it and felt it's teeth. We continue on. We swam around a corner of the coral and started to descend to the bottom with the potato cod and John pointed out a white tipped reef shark. They are 1-2 meters long and harmless. The tiger and great white sharks are the trouble makers, but they usually leave divers alone also. John then found a giant clam which was almost 2 feet in length. He motioned me to come closer and took my hand and pushed it into the clam's mouth. I pulled back and the clam shut its mouth. John put his hand in the mouth and I did then same thing. The clam couldn't really close its mouth tight. The edges of its mouth were a purply and felt like velvet.

My second dive was to watch them feed the potato cod. I went down with Taka who was going to feed the fish. When the fish saw the blue bucket they started following him. They probably smelled the food more than saw it. Six cod showed up along with other fish including red snapper bass. Red snapper bass have two huge fangs. After 20 minutes of feeding the cod, Taka took me exploring. I saw a moray eel swimming.

That evening everyone went on the night dive except for me. I wasn't certified yet so I had to wait until tomorrow night.

Day #32:

I woke up early again. The first dive of the day was to start at 6:30. Dan the hostie got a little excited and starting preparing breakfast for people. I wasn't around, but I guess John yelled at him because we weren't supposed to eat until after the dive. That way we could eat while the boat was moving to the next dive site.

I was suppose to complete all of my requirements for my open water dive, but the current was very strong so we didn't attempt it. Instead I followed John around the Mysterious Bommie Reef. John showed me some little christmas tree worms. They looked like red or blue christmas trees and when you tried to touch them they would retract into the coral very quickly. After a couple seconds they would come out again.

I finished my dive requirements with Taka on the next dive. After I finished the requirements I was buddied up with a dutch girl, Iris. Taka lead Iris & I and two Japanese girls around the reef.

We played cards that afternoon. Jim and Scott, a couple of Canadians from Saskatchewan with Danny Schoeniger personalities, taught us how to play Shithead, a popular European card game.

Bernardo from Paraguay was my buddy for the night dive at Beer Garden Reef. Ronny, a dive master, lead us around. I didn't like the first part of the dive because everything was dark and not as interesting as the day dives were. After I got comfortable underwater at night I relaxed and really enjoyed the dive. The second part of the dive I saw gigantic loggerhead and green turtle. The loggerhead turtle was sleeping and the green was swimming (I think). I also saw a sea cucumber which was about a meter long.

Day #33:

Shawn was my buddy for my last two dives. We dove at Hog's Breath and Three Sisters reefs.

At the end of the trip we did a group picture. There were about 27 of us diving which meant 27 different camera. We gave them all to the guy who was video taping the dives and he quickly took all of the pictures.

Off the boat, back to Caravella 77 backpackers, checked email, bought a clean t-shirt and met my cousin to walk to the Bull & Cock for dinner with the people we had dove with. It was about a mile walk and I was planning on taking a taxi home. We didn't got right home instead we all decided to go to the Woolshed bar. The Woolshed consisted of a lot of drunk people standing and dancing on tables and also randomly hooking up with strangers, I think.

Stay tuned. The next trip report covers my sailing adventure in Whitsunday Islands on board the maxi-yatch The Condor.

Hardy

Day #34:

I had to run down to the bus terminal and catch the bus to Airlee Beach. The bus left at 9:30 a.m. and got into Airlee Beach at 7:30 p.m. The bus did made one 50 minute stop for lunch which me stretch my legs. The bus stopped at a oceanside town so I ate lunch looking out over the ocean.

The shuttle for the Koala backpackers met me at the bus stop in Airlee Beach. I checked in and went to my room. There was a guy from Vail, CO and a guy from outside of Rotterdam, Netherlands. The dutch guy, Bas - short for Sebastian, was on the same sailboat as me so he told me where to check in and that it was B.Y.O.B. on the boat. The check-in was right across the street for ProSail, then I walked down to the street to find alcohol for the trip, and for dinner I ordered some take-away Chinese food and walked down to the park to eat.

I checked email at GlobalGossip before heading back to sleep. There wasn't a local access number in Airlee Beach so it turned out to be cheaper to call Vermont than to call Cairns or Syndey. I only downloaded part of the email because it cost me about $5 when it normally cost me only $2 to check email.

Day #35:

Up at 6:45, showered, and crossed street to meet at ProSail. Two boats were heading out today. My boat was the Condor. The other boat was the Matador. Both boats are maxi-racing-yatchs, about 80 feet long, and sleep 30 people (uncomfortably). There were already a lot of cute girls there, but Bas quickly determined that most of the girls were going on the Matador and most of the guys on the Condor. Bad luck. The bus drove us about 15 minutes to Shute Harbor which is where the boats were moored.

Rene was in charge of getting us all onto the Condor. We all rented stinger suits to protect us from the small life threatening jelly fish. We boarded the Condor and headed below deck where I quickly determined that staying above deck would more a lot more comfortable. It was very hot below deck. Rene assigned us our beds. My bed was toward the back of the boat and hung about 18" from the ceiling. To get into it I had to climb on the double bed which was below me.

The Condor motored out of the harbor for a ways and then we raised the sails. It took six people to raise the sails - four of us to crank and the two deck hands (James and Christian) to do the more technical part of watching us crank while they guided the line. Cranking the sail was tiring, but it had gears so just when you could crank in first gear anymore then they would have us crank in second gear. Their was a third gear, but we never had to use it.

We sailed to Kay Cove(?). Most people snorkeled and four of us (Dan, Liz, and Jamie) went scuba diving. It was horrible!! There was a slight current, but the visibility was only a couple meters. They told us we get out after ten minutes and get our money back and I thought about doing it, but didn't, but I should have.

We sailed to Bait Reef to moor for the night. We went snorkeling when we got there. The snorkeling was excellent. I took my camera and took a lot of pictures.

We ate dinner and started drinking. I bought some rum, but it tasted like cheap well rum. I had to keep adding soda to dilute the taste. I turned in around 10:30...I wanted to get a good spot on deck. I brought my blanket up and found a nice comfy sail to sleep on. Around 12:30 a.m. Jamie (a female), woke everyone sleeping on the front of the boat up. She was jumping up and down saying "look James is a monkey. I want to be a monkey, too." She was pissed (AU/NZ definition of pissed, not US) She wanted to climb up onto the sail that was resting on the boom. That's where she slept. I got a picture of her with her head popped out of the sail. Morna, who was sleeping, made a comment about letting her sleep and a guy named Steve told her if she was sleeping on deck to deal with the noise.

Jamie woke us up again in the morning at 5:30 climbing down, but that wasn't a bad thing because the false dawn was off to the east. Morna and I oohed and ahhhed at the sunrise. We were oohing and ahhhing too much because Steve told us to be quiet. I just smirked and ignored him -- after all if you are sleeping on deck then you should just deal with the noise.

Others woke up and we ate breakfast. There was a large school of blue fish with yellow tails off the side of the boat and we started feeding them. There were also three large fish. One was almost a meter long and the other two were about 750 mm. They were really fun to feed. The big one would swim through the smaller fish and grab the large pieces of english muffins that the smaller fish couldn't eat in one bit. I jumped in with my camera and took pictures of them feeding.

James motored us over to the Stepping Stones to snorkel. The Stepping Stones were several bommies in a row. Then back to the boat to sail.

We sailed past Hardy Reef. I saw a dolphin swimming off in the other direction. We went to a beach to swim for a little bit. It was used to break up the day. There wasn't much wind to enjoy a good fast sail. On the beach a group of us climbed the track to the top of the hill and got a good group picture of us all. Charlotte, Michelle, Morna, and I decided to follow the track further, but it quickly disappeared so we bush-wacked our way back to the track and went back to the beach.

We sailed to the next beach which was where we were going to spend the night. Captain Steve (different from the other Steve) took the boat with its 14 foot keel in to about 20 meters offshore. The water was still 100+ feet deep, but then we were over the ledge which was about 20 feet. Christian shuttled us in the dingy to shore and then went back to more the boat in deeper water. Someone setup the wickets for cricket. I took a turn batting, so I can say I've played cricket now. I still don't know most of the rules. A group of us then played US vs. the EU in soccer. I was on the EU team. Playing soccer on the beach is tough especially when you are using a volleyball. I wiped out going after the ball falling half on the sand and half in the water. It was three (US) to two (EU) when we broke for halftime. Rene had brought up snacks. We didn't continue the game and went back to the boat.

We ate dinner and started drinking. Charlotte, Michelle, John & Gabe (identical twins from CA), and a few others played cards (Shithead, Cheat, and Spit). I was out of rum, but Rene said the boat had a large store of alcohol that we were welcome too. So, I switched to wine.

I grabbed my same sail for bed, but this time I was on the prow of the boat.

Day #36:

Motored over to Whitsunday Beach. Played another soccer game. It was very hot. I had sunscreen and sweat dripping into my eyes making them sting. I also some some turtles in the bay. They popped up for a few seconds and then went back under.

Back to boat, sailed back to Shute Harbor. We took a group picture on the boat. A drunk guy from shore took the first few pictures. I had to yell at him to just take a normal picture with my camera and stand back about 20 feet so he could get everyone in it. After that Rene saved the rest of the pictures and took over taking the pictures.

Everyone from the boat met at Beaches Bar at 7:30 for dinner and drinks. We had a few free pictures of beer and carafes of wine. The DJ played some games where the audience could wine more drinks. A couple of people from our boat did very good. One of the games was a PG version of strip musical chairs. After the games, I walked back to the table and saw Jim and Scott the Canadians from the dive boat in Cairns. I went over and talked to them for a while. Then the real music started playing -- it was just like being at a party of Kristine's they played Abba and Grease. I danced with some of the girls from the Condor. We went to one more bar and then I had to get my bags and catch the bus back to Cairns at 12:50 a.m.

Day #37:

The bus trip was horrible. I was cold, I didn't sleep well, and I was bitten about 10 times. At the end I moved up to the front seat and talked with a girl who was on the Matador who I had talked to a few times earlier because we discovered we were on the same bus back to Cairns.

The bus got into Cairns and I had to jump in a taxi to the airport. I met up with Heather. We flew down to Sydney and checked into the Sydney Central YHA. We asked a bar tender where a good Thai restaurant was and we got two different answers. We chose the bar helper's restaurant. It was good food.

Day #38:

Walked through Darling Harbor, over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, around the Opera House, and back. It took most of the day.

We decided to go for sushi for dinner. The clerk at the YHA said to try China Town. We did. The first place we went was above a Burger King. It looked nice on the inside, but we were the only customers at 8:00 p.m. We ordered a sake, but the waitresses couldn't understand us and we didn't like what we were hearing so we decided to drink the bad tasting sake and leave. The chef sent out some raw squid which was marinated in its own guts for 3 days. It was chewy, but tasty.

We walked to the next block to a sushi bar that we could see what we were eating before we ate it. It was on an electric train that ran around the sushi bar and you just picked off the plates of sushi that you wanted. Other than the waiter now knowing what Sappora and Kerin beer was, although it was on the menu, it satisfied our sushi craving.

Day #39

Ate breakfast at the same little pastry shop as yesterday. Did some email. And, typing this email.... I have to meet Gavin from Palm for lunch - these business trips really suck ;-)

See you all soon. I'm flying back on Saturday, so this is my last trip report unless something outstanding happens on the way home.

Hardy

Day #39: (continued)

Bar hopped in The Rocks region. They started celebrating St. Patrick's Day a day early (even for Aussies). I found a pint of Guiness and a Jamison's Irish Whiskey to celebrate with the others.

Day #40:

The plane left Sydney at 11:30 a.m. on March 17th. The plane flew for 13 hours and it arrived in Los Angeles at 7:30 a.m. on March 17th. Note the times - I traveled backwards in time! The layover in Los Angeles was five hours. I arrived in Montreal at 7:30 and around 8:30 they decided it was about time to let the passengers have their bags. Fred and Peg picked me up at the airport and I walked in my front door at 10:30 p.m. to be greeted my Porter growling and barking at this stranger she hasn't seen in six weeks.

Happy St. Patricks Day.

THE END!

Hardy